Utilities & Alternative Energy

Bain’s energy consultants help utility companies around the globe navigate today’s challenges including: the changing generation mix and efforts to decarbonize, securing fuel and energy supply at reasonable costs and optimizing operational efficiency and customer service. We work with utilities to turn these challenges into opportunities to develop their full potential, invest wisely and become more valuable.

Bain has worked with clients on hundreds of projects in the utilities and alternative energy industries around the globe. Our clients represent a broad cross-section of the sector: power generators, electric and gas utilities, multi-utility conglomerates, alternative energy providers, energy trading companies, gas storage and distribution players, energy service companies, water and waste utilities and diversified global energy leaders.

Increase operating performance in transmission and distribution, such as field force optimization and capital project management

Retain and expand their customer bases through loyalty programs, customer segmentation and other measures

Deploy assets and IT investments for maximum return

Capitalize on technology trends and expand into the right adjacencies

Through our Private Equity group and Mergers & Acquisitions practice we can deploy a team of seasoned experts to help our utility clients evaluate potential deals through due-diligence and execute M&A and post-merger integration.

Utilities face an increasingly challenging environment that presents both opportunities and risks.

Worldwide, utilities find themselves buffeted by wave after wave of change. The source of the turbulence: shifts on the regional and global scale as well as in the public and private sectors. As initiatives for a sustainable energy mix evolve, utility companies that invest wisely position themselves to benefit from the changing industry landscape.

To remain competitive over the next decade, utilities will need to make significant investments and have focused efforts to renew and expand their generation capacity, improve operational efficiency and retain and expand their customer base. Decisions will require tough choices due to several new realities, including:

Increased competition

New and evolving technologies for improved energy efficiency and storage, distributed generation and smart grid and metering

Limited subsidies due to government budget constraints

Continued regulatory environment that mandates CO2 abatement

Customers’ concerns about the environment and their increasing willingness to switch suppliers

Pressure on utilities’ balance sheets and cash flows

Bain works alongside utility companies, at all levels of the organization, to evaluate the risks and opportunities inherent in these trends and constraints. We work with our clients to prevent and remedy the pain points and maximize business value by taking full advantage of underlying opportunities.

Utility leaders will benefit from optimizing their core business and thoughtfully evaluating adjacent opportunities.

Companies that successfully generate growing revenue and profit focus first on achieving full potential in their core businesses—in terms of both scope and performance—and then pursue a disciplined expansion into attractive adjacencies.

As it pertains to their core business, utility leaders seeking to achieve full potential need to:

Frame their generation investment strategy under uncertainty

Develop field force effectiveness

Build customer loyalty

Beyond their immediate core, areas such as energy efficiency and distributed generation open up new opportunities. Our energy consultants can help identify dependable, low-risk adjacencies with favorable economics to invest in—and how to tradeoff and integrate them with the core business initiatives.

Our team

We work as an integrated part of your team, from frontline to C-suite, to deliver true results and make the changes stick.
We have a core group of senior utilities and alternative energy experts that we deploy across the globe.